Ancient History from the Monuments Author:George Smith Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: CHAPTER III. CHALDEA, OR SOUTH BABYLONIA. Nipur and Ur—Urukh and his buildings—The religion and civilization of Ur—Dungi—The kings of Karrak—The rise of Lars... more »a. In early times Babylonia appears to have consisted of several states, which in time became consolidated into one. Of these states our monuments make us first acquainted with one in the south, the capital of which was TTr. At this time our indications suggest that the parent city of Ur was Nipur, now Niffer, a city lying south-west of Babylon, between the Euphrates and Tigris. On the site of Niffer there are now the ruins of a considerable city, divided into two parts by the dry bed of a river, probably in ancient times a branch of the Euphrates. Nipur was devoted to the worship of Bel, the great deity of the Babylonians, who was one of the threesupreme gods; and joined with his worship was that of his consort Belat, or Mylitta, and the god Ninip, lord of war and hunting, who was called his son. Of the time when Nipur was the leading city in this part of Babylonia, we have discovered no monuments; but immediately after, we find, when the monarchy of Ur arose, it was claimed that the god of Ur, the moon, was " the eldest son of Bel, the god of Nipur," the claim carrying with it evidently the assertion that he inherited the rule of his father, and his city the position of his father's seat, Nipur. Ur, the city which thus appears to have succeeded Nipur as capital, is represented by the mounds of Mugheir, about six miles from the Euphrates on its western bank, about lat 31. It was probably not far from the old mouth of the Euphrates, but the river, in company with the Tigris, brings down so large an amount of material to deposit at its mouth, that the land rapidly accumulates at the head of the Persian Gulf, and...« less